Kevin Harter.

Somehow this is the first Kevin Hart movie I’ve reviewed on How About Notflix and I’m not entirely sure how things worked out that way. Die Hart came out way back in 2020 however nobody saw it because it was exclusively released on Quibi. Remember Quibi? I didn’t think so, as a recap Quibi was a failed streaming service created by a man who made a career out of terrible ideas who goes by the name Jeffrey Katzenberg. After scamming investors out of a billion dollars, Quibi shut down the same year it launched.

Die Hart released as a series on Quibi because Quibi’s programming was all about very short TV shows meant to be watched on mobile for people on the go, which ironically contributed to its death when nobody was leaving the house during Covid lockdowns. Following the shuttering of Quibi and sale of their assets to Roku, Die Hart was stitched together as a single movie and pushed on Prime Video. A second season of Die Hart is on the Roku channel.

Directed by Tripper Clancy and written by Tripper Clancy, Die Hart stars none other than Kevin Hart as Hollywood actor Kevin Hart. We join Kevin at a bad time in his life; he’s just starred in another buddy action film alongside Dwayne Johnson, one where he plays the silly comedic sidekick, and he’s getting kinda tired of it. Kevin dreams of being the action star himself, but doesn’t have much luck because he’s incredibly short and has already been typecast as a goofy side guy.

Thankfully the opportunity of a lifetime presents itself in the form of Claude Van De Velde (Jean Reno) who wants Kevin to star in an action film. But Kevin isn’t ready for the big leagues, and must undergo a training camp run by Ron Wilcox (John Travolta). He is joined by Jordan King (Nathalie Emmanuel) as the two learn how to become action stars. The only problem is that Wilcox is absolutely insane and may or may not have murdered a man.

This movie is hilarious and it’s great that the public finally gets to see it being on a streaming service that isn’t a Ponzi scheme. Kevin Hart plays the role of Kevin Hart fantastically and the whole cast does great work playing actors pretending to be other actors. It reminds me of This Is the End where all the actors played slightly exaggerated versions of themselves. There’s plenty of jokes, slapstick comedy, and while I’m pretty sure everyone is going to see the ending coming a mile away, but the process of watching it all come together was still enjoyable.

Films like this are also an interesting insight into the actors, because it takes a lot of confidence and humor to poke fun at yourself the way Hart does in this. You can tell there’s an honesty in the writing, and yeah Kevin Hart in real life does get typecast as the goofy sidekick. Incidentally by creating a movie where he proves that he can do an action film as the star, Kevin Hart proves he can do an action film as the star.

This movie had a lot of Hart. Wink wink. My only complaint is that as an 84 minute film created as disjointed episodes the movie doesn’t have a whole ass movie feel to it, and a few plotlines are stripped bare for time. Kevin Hart is afraid of squirrels, I have no idea if that’s true but it’s a thing the movie presses on several times.

Nathalie Emmanuel is still drop-dead gorgeous.

Rating: A-